August 2011 Blog Posts (22)

NACCHO is pleased to announce a new teleconference series on LHD performance improvement. These calls are designed to respond to timely, common technical assistance (TA) requests related to accreditation, community health assessment and improvement planning processes, Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships, and more! Topics may include:

How can I begin a community health improvement planning process to develop two of the Public Health Accreditation Board…

The Health Impact Project and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) have announced a request for applications for local health departments (LHDs) to participate in a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) Mentorship Project.

An HIA is a type of study that helps identify often-overlooked health impacts of a decision in a field outside of health, like…

The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) invites the public health community to join them on September 14th from 10:00am-12:30pm EST for an event commemorating the launch of national public health department accreditation. The goal of this program, initiated with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is to improve and protect the health of every community by advancing the quality and performance of all Tribal, state, local,…

This fall, the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) will launch its national voluntary public health accreditation program. A recently-published report from the North Carolina Institute for Public Health, entitled Legal Frameworks Supporting Public Health Department Accreditation: Key Findings and Lessons Learned from Ten States, and its Executive Summary, present the research findings and legal lessons learned from ten diverse states in preparation for a national voluntary accreditation…

Pilot programs emphasizing high-visibility enforcement of distracted driving laws in Hartford, CN, and Syracuse, NY, have been credited with reducing hand-held cell phone use while driving by 57% and 32%, and texting while driving by 72% and 32%, in those respective areas. The motivation for such programs is simple: according to Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood,…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now offers an archive of podcasts, including "A Cup of health with CDC." This program is a weekly feature of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) and hosts researchers from the CDC to discuss public health concerns and ways for individuals to address them. Aging, obesity, and safety are recurring topics on the podcast.

The National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI) is hosting the latest webinar in their Public Health Agency & Systems Improvement Webinar Series August 23, 2011 from 2:00pm-3:00pm EST called, "Performance Standards, Accreditation, and MAPP! Oh My! How do they all fit together?"

During the annual NPHPSP and MAPP training held in May in St. Louis, MO, Julia Joh Elligers and Les Beitsch shared insight into how NPHPSP, accreditation, and MAPP performance improvement…

Even the youngest children in the United States are at risk of becoming obese. Today, almost 10 percent of infants and toddlers carry excess weight for their length, and slightly more than 20 percent of children between the ages of two and five are already overweight or obese. Because early obesity can track into adulthood, efforts to prevent obesity should begin long before a child enters school.

The newest edition of CDC Vital Signs examines data from CDC's national survey of maternity care practices in infant nutrition and care to determine the percent of U.S. hospitals with policies and practices that are consistent with the World Health Organization/UNICEF Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative's Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding. This report emphasizes that making changes in hospital practices can help improve breastfeeding rates and reduce the risk of childhood…

Official press release from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, August 1, 2011:

Historic new guidelines that will ensure women receive preventive health services at no additional cost were announced today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Developed by the independent Institute of Medicine, the new guidelines require new health insurance plans to cover women’s preventive services such as well-woman visits, breastfeeding support, domestic…

NewPublicHealth is a community forum designed to spark an ongoing conversation about public health challenges, opportunities, evidence, solutions and innovations.

We all know that solving the nation’s health crisis is going to take more than improvements to health care. If we’re going to decrease costs and improve health, we need to identify new ways to prevent disease and health crises where they begin—in our communities.

Conference speakers have been announced! Todd Park, the Chief Technology Officer for the Department of Health and Human Services and Seth Mnookin, author of The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear. Don't miss out on these great speakers, register now!

Todd Park joined the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as Chief Technology Officer in August 2009. In this role, he is responsible for helping HHS leadership harness the power of…

Women who have had heart attacks lag behind their male counterparts when it comes to receiving treatment, according to a recent report.

In its 2011 “Women's Health in American Hospitals” report, released May 3, physician and hospital ratings group HealthGrades found significant gender disparities in cardiovascular care. Approximately one-third of female heart attack patients receive lifesaving surgical interventions, the report said, compared to one-half of…

Adopting comprehensive state-by-state smoke-free laws in the 27 states that do not already have them will save more than $1.3 billion over five years, according to a report released in June by the American Cancer Society.

The report, “Saving Lives, Saving Money: A State-By-State Report on the Health and Economic Impact of Tobacco Taxes” was released simultaneously with “Saving Lives, Saving Money: A State-By-State Report on the Health and Economic Impact of…

More than 24 million people in the United States now suffer from asthma, a 12.3 percent increase over the rate in 2001, a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found.

The study, which reviewed the number of asthma cases between 2001 and 2009, found that 9.6 percent of children had asthma and that the rate is highest among poor children. Fully 17 percent of black children had asthma, according to the findings, which were published in CDC’s…

The American Public Health Association (APHA) put together an issue brief summarizing the workforce provisions of the Affordable Care Act and providing an update on the implementation and funding of those provisions.

A main tenet of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the health care reform law signed in March 2010, is to transform our “sick care” system into one that focuses on prevention and health promotion. The success of this transformation largely rests on a sufficiently…

The Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice aims to improve public health practice, education, and research by fostering, coordinating, and monitoring links among academia and the public health and healthcare community; developing and advancing innovative strategies to build and strengthen public health infrastructure; and creating a process for continuing public health education throughout one’s career.

This nationwide quality improvement initiative brings together public health, primary care and other community sectors (such as schools, parks, agriculture, housing, transportation and business), for the prevention and treatment of individuals with overweight and obesity.

Specifically, the Aim of the Healthy Weight Collaborative (HWC) is to enable multi-sector Teams (consisting of primary care, public health and community sector participants) to implement selected evidence-based…

The Public Health Foundation (PHF) has announced the winners of the "I'm Your Community Guide!" Contest, which identified model practices for implementing the evidence-based strategies outlined in the Guide to Community Preventive Services (Community Guide).

St. James-Santee Family Health Center has been awarded first place for their story, “Black Corals: A Breast Cancer Screening Promotion Project for African American Women in South Carolina.” They implemented findings and…